Today we’d like to introduce you to Lior Sadeh.
Lior, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We started Bee Fields Farm a diverse small family farm seven years ago. We started growing herbs alongside the vegetable from the beginning. The herb garden grew every year for the first three years until we reached what we feel is our capacity. We now grow close to 100 different healing plants on three-quarters of an acre. From our second year here at the farm, we started producing teas and salves. In the beginning, we dried our herbs in a small tool shed that came with the house. We had only 30 trays to dry herbs on. Since herbs have an optimum harvesting time we always felt a little stressed about meeting that optimum time. On our third year on the farm, Elad transformed a two car garage into a large drying room, a processing room for the herbs and a farm store. Our new drying room has more than one hundred racks. The drying room works constantly from mid-May to mid-October. It is kept in a constant temperature of 90F with air circulation which provides the herbs with the optimal conditions to be both dry and fresh. What started as a small line of teas (4) and a small line of salves turn into a large variety of products, including 11 herbal teas, 8 different salves, infused honey vinegar and oils, herbal extract and elixirs.
Has it been a smooth road?
My business is very unique for two reasons. First, I am both a farmer and a producer of my products. I am also doing all the marketing, social media etc, and I go to the farmers market and fairs. It’s a lot of work. In the first five years, I worked seven days a year with a vacation only in Christmas and New Year weekend. While this kind of commitment and dedication is almost necessary for starting and establishing a new business it is not sustainable over time.
Moreover, I found that some parts of the business were too challenging for me and I learned to let go and delegate. My lesson here is that you need to know yourself, your strength and weakness and partner with people that will compliment you. My partner is my husband but it could be a friend, a colleague or an employee.
The second reason that my business is unique is that in many places people do not understand what I am doing. People used to pass my tent without even coming in to look at my products because they didn’t relate to my products. It took me about four years of tweaking my markets to find the right ones for me and for my products. It is a constant trial and change process. I am part of a group of vendors that exchange information about fairs but I learned that what works for me and my products doesn’t necessarily work for other products and vice versa. My lesson here is to do your homework, learn about your product and your target market.
One more lesson I had to learn is to not be afraid to ask for a good price for my products. I work hard to produce high-quality products that are handmade by my husband and myself all the way from the seed in the greenhouse to the shelf. If you produce a product that is really high quality and you can stand proudly behind it don’t be shy about asking a good price. People are willing to pay when they recognize true integrity.
We’d love to hear more about Bee Fields Farm.
The one thing that set us apart from many other herbal product producers is that we grow the herbs that we use in our products. That means that we have control over the growing conditions, harvesting, and processing of the herbs that we use. That insures that our products are made with fresh herbs and are usually sold out within a year from the time of harvest.
We also handcraft all our products so no machines are used for harvesting and product making. Herbs tend to lose their potency when handled. The more you crush them the more you release their chemical component. Handling the herbs with care ensure that they keep their freshness and potency.
Growing your own herbs means that you have a direct relationship with them. That’s influences not just the integrity of our product but also the relationships that we develop with our customers. Our products are aimed to nourish and heal creating warm relationships with the earth and plants in our garden and with our customers is important to us.
So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
I believe women are facing many challenges today because in many cases women try to go into the world and fill the same roles as do men. We now know that women are different from men on even the cellular level but women are still trying to compete with the same tools and set of skills that men use. Women have different capacities they can bring unique qualities to the table. I believe that if women will not be afraid to get in touch with their feminine wisdom and to express it in the business world they will be very successful and the business that they are involved with will flourish.
Contact Info:
- Address: 555 Abbott Hill Rd Wilton NH 03086
- Phone: 16036541097
- Email: beefieldsfarm@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeeFieldsFarm/
Image Credit:
Lior and Elad Sadeh at Bee Fields Farm
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